The Woke Mind: They WANT you to over-react
Your reaction is the goal, and they will use it against you.
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The woke left are students of Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals. If you’ve never read that book, it is undoubtedly worth it. Many of the rules for the actively unwoke that I discuss in my book are based on Alinsky’s more effective principles.
There is one rule of his that I want to discuss specifically today:
"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage."
Ridicule is certainly an important weapon, and something we’ll certainly discuss another day. But, the portion of this rule I want to focus on is the second part - they do it with the specific goal of making your opponent react to use it to their advantage.
The reaction is the goal.
They want you to react.
They need you to react.
They will do anything they can to provoke you to react.
And then they will use your reaction against you.
This is a dynamic that constantly plays out between the woke left and the conservative right.
The woke left are strategic. You may not like their strategy or understand it, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t strategic. They have a vision and a strategy that they implement relentlessly.
The conservative right are reactionary. They don’t have a proactive plan or vision. The GOP hasn't even updated it’s platform since Mitt Romney was their nominee for President. Their only real plan is to react to everything the woke left does and then saying “they’re crazy, we’re not them.”
Here’s the dynamic that takes place over and over again:
The woke left does something that causes chaos
Chaos is a feature to them - you can’t have a revolution if you don’t destabilize the system.
The conservative right reacts to the chaos
They’ve been getting progressively frustrated since Donald Trump left office, and their reactions have become more erratic and absurd. They, of course, don’t realize this.
The woke left uses the right’s reaction against them to gain more power over them than they already had.
When they do this the right behaves even more outlandishly than they did before, which is also then used against them.
Rinse and repeat. Each time, the woke left gains more power (because their actions are designed to destabilize the system) and the conservative right loses power, but somehow manages to convince themselves they are winning because they did something.
The conservative right has no idea they are caught up in this dynamic, which makes the notion of their idea that they’re winning seem even more absurd. It would even be laughable if not for the fact that...
The reactions of the conservative right usually make the problem worse for those of us who want woke to die, because their actions inevitably distract from the real problem and you cannot convince them they are losing because their influencers keep telling them they are winning.
Let me give you an example of what I mean:
The woke left pushes their ideas into the school curriculum, teaching queer theory to children as young as kindergarten.
The conservative right catches onto this and tries to ban the problematic library books.
They focus all of their energy on a book banning strategy that doesn’t work because every time they ban one book, the woke left replaces it with five new books they don’t know about, keeping them in a constant game of chasing their tail.
In other words, the woke left uses the conservative right’s reaction to keep them busy with a goal they can never achieve (because the left will just keep publishing new books) and, while they are focused on things that don’t matter, the woke left is continuing to solidify their policies at the school district level that tear away at parental rights.
The conservative right doesn’t even know these policies exist because they’re too focused on banning the next round of books.
In fact, they’ve moved beyond books with any identifable porn. They’re banning Ruby Bridges because it talks about race, and complaining that books that discuss how sea horses mate are grooming.
The above is a real thing. I found it because a conservative posted it on Facebook and it showed up in my feed as an example of grooming.
And the conservative who posted it and her friends commenting on it really had no idea how ridiculous it looked.
Complaining about sea horses is exactly and precisely the reaction the woke left was hoping for…because it completely undermines the idea of grooming as a serious problem that is actually taking place in schools right now.
Every single time grooming gets mentioned, examples of this are brought up as proof that the right is being alarmist and puritanical. They’re worried about sea horses??? Really????
In the meantime, actual grooming and indoctrination go unnoticed and even become more solidified.
All of this is because of the over-reaction of the conservative right.
It is a series of unforced errors.
All that happened was the woke left set up the conservative right to react.
And the right took the bait…and keep taking it over and over and over again until they ended up at sea horses are grooming.
They did this because they don’t know they’re being set up, and they won’t listen to people who try to explain it.
And round and round and round we go.
Where we stop, nobody knows.
What’s the answer?
Don’t react.
Don’t take the bait.
Craft a vision, something you’re moving towards, so you don’t end up spending your life fighting against.
Know that every single time the woke left does something, it is to elicit your reaction.
Assume they will use everything against you and use it as a way to avoid the unforced error and come up with more creative solutions.
Plenty of things could be done that don’t involve you walking head first into a trap. You just have to realize that you’re being tricked so that you don’t keep falling for it.
They are playing the same game with you as you experience at a magic show.
The magician is doing the trick on one side of the stage…but he doesn’t want you looking at him.
So he sends his assistant twirling to the other side of the stage wearing a tight, low-cut dress with sparkles.
All eyes follow the assistant, and she provides the distraction required while the magician performs the real trick.
The conservative right are constantly chasing the magician’s assistant.
It’s only when they stop that they will be able to see the real trick being performed.
Questions?
Let me know in the comments!
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it's funny that conservatives keep saying the left is crazy (without realizing it's the alt left that is the problem) and yet keep engaging the crazies like the crazies are serious. there is a saying... don't argue with stupid ppl, cause those who are observing wont be able to tell which of you is stupid... the conservative right falls for it every time and digs the pit even deeper trying to get out.
something ppl can do instead of reacting, if one must engage, is it to treat it like a performance - the audience being the ppl witnessing the exchange. you can't change the mind of the crazies, but you can plant seeds of doubt in the audience that cause them to see the crazies as they are. don't argue with the crazies (that is the reaction they want); instead, give them what they don't expect... the crazies seem to like attention, so give it to them. Ask them about their plans and how they will implement them, listen and pose thoughtful questions that exposes them, then when your done, simply state you think their ideas aren't feasible with minimal details and leave it at that (ie don't hit them over the head with info to which they aren't likely to be receptive). Make them come to you for the reasons. Chances are the crazies wont, but the audience might. And if the person you conversed with hasn't gone too far down the road to crazy town, the thoughtful questions you asked might spark a dissonance that makes them think more (this is why you don't give them detailed reasons; since they aren't likely to come to you with questions, it means they have to reason it out for themselves.)
Thank you for this article. I've noticed this playing out too and wondered what (other than it looks like people acting like children) was the goal...now it makes sense. I appreciate your insights and will share them with friends and family.